GARRETT PINPOINTER - ARE THEY ANY GOOD

Has anybody had any experience with a pinpointer.

just got a 25 inch mono coil, to hopefully, get onto some deeper and bigger nugs. but with such a big coil, the holes have to be massive, and i am trying to figure out how to make the job easier to pinpoint, where in the hole the target is. (and get it out the easiest way).

main question is - how good are they? what distance will they identify, say a 10gram nugget at?
is there a better option around than the garrett which claims to be the best?
any help would be appreciated ... kev

Hi Kev
The Garrett pin pointer is well worth having , it's sensitive enough to locate small sub gram nuggets down to .1 of a gram whilst sifting through dirt from dig holes .
They are a great timesaver on finding targets in deep digholes .
I just got back from a weeks prospecting and left the pin pointer home and that cost me extra time and a lot of work on some of the large deep target recoveries.
All the deep digs were for junk but did find some nice pieces around 1 1/2 gms
Cheers Mark

thanks mark, while you were reading my query, i discovered the "search" on top right of page.
it turned up a good previous discussion from june last year.

LLANBRIC, GREYNOMAD, NERO-DESIGN, BENCLD. all recommend them as useful, especially on larger targets in deep holes (or missed in larger holes, in the wall) thats is what i would want it for, as i will be hunting with smaller coils in new country to get onto the smaller ones.

JIG was not fussed with his, i might pm him and see if the wants to get rid of it.

going to put a add in the wanted column now.

thanks for your info from nine months back fellas ... kev

Hi Kev, I myself would have to side with Jig. Next to useless except for sifting through loose dirt for small stuff out of the hole.

On wide deep big holes I found a better option was either the coiltek 6" or even the commander 8" permanantly mounted on a stem which fits into my backpack with no trouble. Was just a matter of a quick swap over of the plugs and hand holding the stem.

I found in a big hole, if the nugget was 2" or more in the side wall the probe couldn't find it, it had to almost be touching it.

Maybe it was the probe I tried or just my style of digging, but the probe was just not for me.

Cheers.

I find the Garrett Pinpointer excellent for finding coins and small and large nugget in the hole. It has saved me time and frustration, knowing exactly were it is. Best little helper ever

Wombat

Hi Kev,

I use the Coiltek pinpoint probe exclusively and can highly recommend it. You can see it in action in a couple of my YouTube vids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOxgivw6iRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ6BInwtwkc

I do sometimes use a little Coiltek 10x5 DD with descrimination set to about 80% with my 4500, just to check whether it is worth digging further. If it blanks out, I don't bother ! It can save a lot of work.

Hope that big NF 25 finds you some of the good stuff.

Cheers,
Rick

Hey Kev.
That 25inch NF is HUGE and the HARDEST part about using a large coil is that it's almost impossible to pinpoint with it, especially when you've started digging with it. You can't dip the edge into the hole and you'll have a hard time trying to figure which side of the hole to dig into as you look for the target.

On a busy goldfield, more often than not, you'll be digging plenty of junk if using a monoloop because the discrimination won't work with that type of coil. And even with a Double-D, there's still a lot of garbage that you'll be detecting. Lead bullets and rifle casings abound on any goldfield. Sure, you can pick up on subtle target differences just the same, but with all those junk targets out there, you want to get them out of the ground and identify them as soon as possible so you can move on to the next target.

For this reason, I've always used a pinpointer as it increases recovery
speed. The targets, gold or not, tend to be covered with soil which
makes them look like the surrounding dirt until the are washed. The goal of the pinpointer is twofold: It helps speed up recovery and identification of junk targets and it allows you to dig a target from a hole without (hopefully) damaging it with your pick. The larger the target, the further away the pinpointer will respond.

Yes, you can use your coil to pinpoint. If you are using a mono coil, you can tilt the detector to one side to pinpoint with the edge although be careful not to strain your Quick-Track button which is an expensive part of your detector to break. The new 'Advantage' series coils from Nugget Finder allow for easy pinpointing of SMALL targets these days. Especially the smaller 14 & 12 inch coils. I have a 6" Mono from Coiltek which can be used to pinpoint with although you might as well use a Coiltek Probe if that's your purpose. That 6" coil is a fantastic sniper-coil and can pickup small targets, but I have had times when working on dried out creeks with both the 6" coil and a dedicated pinpointer and the pinpointer won hands down with recovery for me.


VIBRAPROBE 870 - A WATERPROOF, P.I. PINPOINTER
RRP $150

Previously, I'd been using a Vibraprobe 870 which is a Pulse Induction pinpointer. It has an internal off switch and it surned on by holding it upside-down for a couple of seconds. This is great when using a VLF detector but, being PI, this pinpointer can put out a field ...large enough to interfere with your detector. AND the probe won't turn itself off until it has sensed there are no targets for 1 minute. Unfortunately your own detector keeps triggering a response from the pinpointer ... which in turn means you can't turn the probe off. And you can't manually turn it off because there's no external switches! But it is waterproof and it's powerful. Sensitive to very small targets too. The Vibraprobe is a better built and more reliable probe than the previous Vibraprobe incarnations and the model before this one had a few problems. It seems to use off-the-shelf PVC plastic components in its construction.

The Vibraprobe 870 simply vibrates (no Audio!) and it takes a 9v battery. It is 100% waterproof and comes with a Nylon webbing pouch for wearing on the belt.


GARRETT PRO-POINTER - A NEAR-WATERPROOF VLF PINPOINTER
RRP $235

These pinpointers from Garrett are self-calibrating so that if you turn it on near a metal object (say, a few inches from your metal wristwatch), the unit becomes desensitized and will only react to larger objects up close. Turning it on whilst holding it up in the air away from metal will result in a much more sensitive setting. I think they run at around 14khz but this information has come from another user so don't quote me there.

The most common target on the goldfields is probably going to be bullets and even a corroded .22 caliber short case is going to be hard to see until you pick it out of your other hand with your fingers. You can run the tip of the probe into your hand or scoop to poke around and identify the target.

The Pro Pointer both sounds off with an ever increasing proximity tone that gets faster as you approach the target with the probe... PLUS, it has the ability to vibrate at various speeds, making it useful to those wearing earphones. I've dropped mine directly onto rock from a height so they can handle a heck of an impact. There's a "sifting blade" on one surface, the entire length of the forward part of the probe is sensitive and there's a white LED light built into it for those working at night. Very Handy!

The Pro Pointer beeps and vibrates at various speeds. It is water-resistant but could be considered waterproof if you keep your thumb over the tiny speaker membrane. It uses a custom moulded case and electronics. JP pointed out to me that this probe has triggered occasional reactions from SOME of the GPX detectors and even today, nobody knows why. And it's not consistent eaither... One guy will only have a probelem with one particular coil when using this probe and everyone else with the same coil has no problem. With this sort of inconsistency, it might suggest a shielding problem with the detectors (at least this is the suggestion by one of the people involved). In the end, I found my own 16" NF coil triggered my pinpointer. The Garrett Pro Pointer is the preferred pinpointer for the majority of nugget hunters in North America and even in Australia. Those who dig in Western Australia are often after larger, deeper gold... and they'll often use the Coiltek Probe. The popularity appears to be more related to word-of-mouth rather than advertisement and I've watched people use the Vibraprobe and the Pro-Pointer and both have exclaimed that the use of a pinpointer "sure made a difference" (in relation to the speed of target recovery).

The Garrett Pro-Pointer has Vibration AND Audio... and it takes a 9v battery. It is waterproof if you put your thumb over the speaker but is not designed so much for water immersion. The way the 9v battery slides into the handle (without a need to plug it in to a board) is impressive. It comes with a Nylon webbing pouch for wearing on the belt that has a velcro strip and a press-stud to secure it. There's metal in the pouch that will trigger the detector and alert the user if he forgets to turn it off.


COILTEK PROBE - A P.I. Tubular COIL for PINPOINTING
RRP $150

Now the Coiltek Probe is simply a variation in detecting coils and was around long before handheld pinpointers. This probe is the more streamlined cousin of the early versions. It's essentially a tube filled with resin and a mono wire. The user must not touch the ground with it at all because it will usually beep immediately. You need to point it into the hole to identify where the target it. You have to unplug your detector coil before you can use this because, as you can see in my picture above, it uses your coil mount and has to be connected directly to your Minelab Detector in order to draw power. As stated above, a few of the WA nugget hunters prefer to use the Coiltek Probe. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's a little hard to use in some conditions and may be too sensitive for some users. It is less convenient than using the Garrett Pro Pointer but has better depth.

They are robust and can take abuse ...but not on the connector end where the pins are.

_________________________________________

Summary:
I like and use all three pinpointers but prefer the Garrett Pro Pointer. It's fast to work with and neither over-sensitive nor fragile to use. The On-Off button puts it ahead of the Vibraprobe and the speed with which it can be deployed is better than the Coiltek Probe for my uses because I can unholster it and use it in seconds whereas the Coiltek Probe must be extracted from your pouch and then connected to the detector PLUS it can be too sensitive to root around with on the ground with the tip.

The typical distance to a 1 gram nugget from the poinpointers will partially depend on the shape of the nugget (flat, gnarly or spherical) but the larger the target is, the further away it will respond to the pinpointer. I find that a larger 7 grammer will respond at several centimeters. But that 25 inch coil of yours will probably miss a lot of nuggets under 5 grams. The brighter side of this is that you'll be digging less junk and larger targets... hopefully gold! All the best!



Cheers,


Marco

Ok ,,, let me in on the secret,, how do you get within a bullsroar of a turned on 45, with a garrett pin pionter, I can hold it above me head and the 45 would still pick it up and scream its head off, the only way i coud use it was with a vlf machine,, cheers spider

thanks fellas, much more educated now.

MADTUNA - thanks for you help

WOMBAT - will go with the good vibes.

ARARATGOLD - doing a lot of prep work at home, hope it pays off in the paddock. (grass head high)

NERODESIGN - thanks marco, lot of comprehensive info there.

next comes the hard part - digging bloody big holes - but it will take just one nugget and WHOOPEE ... KEV

(will try and remember to center on the target by doing the 90 degrees trick before i start digging, have had too much experience leaving them in the wall next time )

Gday Kev.

Get yourself a three inch inline pinpointer from Coiltek,coupled to a two way,coil switch over box,[which clips high up on to your detector stem].This inline 3"pinpointer can actually ballance out mineralized ground,giving you a more, positive target ID,on highly mineralized soil conditions,where all other self powered hand held pinpointers struggle.

Cheers kon61.

I've never heard of a handheld pinpointer having difficulties with mineralized soils. They're usually rather stable compared to the detectors themselves.

Cheers,

M

we had that problem at HE with the pin pointer sounding off on the mineralized soil making it next to impossible to locate what turned out to be a BB

G'day nero_design,

All three pinpointers have given me false signals when searching for positive targets in highly mineralized ground,except the old 3" Coiltek inline pinpointer.The handhelds all work well,in quiet to medium mineralized ground conditions but not in highly mineralized ground conditions.My current vibra probe 870 works great in salt water at the beach, giving me clear accurate target ID.But it's the heavily mineralized gold fields of Victoria that the vibra probe,garret and even the one inch coiltek struggle to identify a positive target from ground noise,especially when searching for a target upon contact through the mineralize ground.Now these are only my own personal findings and i do stand to be corrected. I just wonder,if others out there might have experienced the same thing.

Cheers kon61

Interesting. I usually do my Coil and Pinpointer testing at Hill End simply because of the minerals there. Occasionally I'll do it in another district if it's photographs that I need but digging .22 slugs in the HE area is a breeze using all of the above pinpointers. I used to use Wattle Flat (some really hot ground there) but found the mineral concentrations to be a little higer over at HE. There's a setting on the X-Terras that allows you to read the mineral content of the soil under the coil to determine how mineralized the ground is.

Cheers,

M

I have one and I love it,The only problem I have with it is it interfers with the 45 even when turned off with some coils,it sets the 45 off further away than my pick.I have not had time to sort that out yet but there must be some sort of material to shield it.That is the only problem I have had.
cheers Dave

[quote="nero_design"]Interesting. I usually do my Coil and Pinpointer testing at Hill End simply because of the minerals there. Occasionally I'll do it in another district if it's photographs that I need but digging .22 slugs in the HE area is a breeze using all of the above pinpointers. I used to use Wattle Flat (some really hot ground there) but found the mineral concentrations to be a little higer over at HE. There's a setting on the X-Terras that allows you to read the mineral content of the soil under the coil to determine how mineralized the ground is.

Cheers,

Hi Marco
Do you have the setting info? I have it or one on my MXT. I have seen one method for the X-Terra on Finds forums which is an extension of Auto-GBing the X70 but the id nos are not really accurate as I know the MXT ones are
Cheers Wally

Well Spidertice I must have one of those GPXs that react to the pointer as well only mine goes off when its turned off!! 12 inch el nuggetfinder, my favourite,hardly a big coil,finds gold consistantly on its own ,no pinpointer required.